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novabird's review against another edition
5.0
As Michaels says in her own words, “A poem is as neural as love . . . these aren’t poems they are ghost stories.” p. 163. Michaels gives herself over entirely to her own poetic voice and gives us the brilliance of this combination into a beautiful haunting.
Jakob is haunted by the sense that he had forgotten his sister, Bella, during the traumatic memory of the murder of his family. He holds onto his memories of her, that colour every aspect of his life, as if by constantly remembering her he can redeem himself of the sin of his original forgetting.
Michaels gives life to both Jakob’s and Ben’s survivor guilt by imbuing her narrative structure with an unbridled poetic license told through two first person points of view that bear witness to the repercussion of deep injury to their psyches.
Fugitive Pieces is about the slow process of truly healing from the inside out. It occupies the liminal space between the past and the present, where memory transforms from grave injury to an invocation towards hope, both collectively and individually,
Michaels sanctifies wherever our memories exist in, “A hiding place, rotted with grief.” She returns what can’t be saved, to the earth in her lush descriptions of landscape, as personified in Jakob’s relationship to Athos. She shines light, “Until (leaves) become so dark they can take in no more (light), reflect the light like smoky mirrors.”
Unlike the leaves, Michaels’ mirrors are dazzling bright. They quicken the heart; they leave an ache in your throat because you see much more clearly than you had before reading her offering.
Fugitive Pieces flaws are relatively inconsequential, so that they hardly mar near perfection. I give this 4.75 stars.
If you can allow the poetic narrative to sweep you along the currents of a slow moving river, that has no need for being steered away from the minor obstacles of unfamiliar Greek words, or terminology, and just allow the sounds of moving water to speak about its own passage of time in waves of lyricism, then you will be rewarded simply by the experience itself.
“I couldn't turn my anguish from the precise moment of death. I was focused on that historical split second: the tableau of the haunting trinity—perpetrator, victim, witness.”
Jakob is haunted by the sense that he had forgotten his sister, Bella, during the traumatic memory of the murder of his family. He holds onto his memories of her, that colour every aspect of his life, as if by constantly remembering her he can redeem himself of the sin of his original forgetting.
Michaels gives life to both Jakob’s and Ben’s survivor guilt by imbuing her narrative structure with an unbridled poetic license told through two first person points of view that bear witness to the repercussion of deep injury to their psyches.
“like a building that’s burned out inside, with the outer walls still standing.”
“The memories we elude catch up to us, overtake us like a shadow.
Fugitive Pieces is about the slow process of truly healing from the inside out. It occupies the liminal space between the past and the present, where memory transforms from grave injury to an invocation towards hope, both collectively and individually,
“How can one man take on the memories of even one other man, let alone five or ten or a thousand or ten thousand; how can they be sanctified, each?”
“When I first read this I could not imagine it. But later I felt I understood. Sometimes the body experiences revelation because it has abandoned every other possibility.”
Michaels sanctifies wherever our memories exist in, “A hiding place, rotted with grief.” She returns what can’t be saved, to the earth in her lush descriptions of landscape, as personified in Jakob’s relationship to Athos. She shines light, “Until (leaves) become so dark they can take in no more (light), reflect the light like smoky mirrors.”
Unlike the leaves, Michaels’ mirrors are dazzling bright. They quicken the heart; they leave an ache in your throat because you see much more clearly than you had before reading her offering.
Fugitive Pieces flaws are relatively inconsequential, so that they hardly mar near perfection. I give this 4.75 stars.
If you can allow the poetic narrative to sweep you along the currents of a slow moving river, that has no need for being steered away from the minor obstacles of unfamiliar Greek words, or terminology, and just allow the sounds of moving water to speak about its own passage of time in waves of lyricism, then you will be rewarded simply by the experience itself.
mya_kershaw_dann's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
jess_mango's review
4.0
3.5 out of 5 stars. This book is packed with metaphors and poetic prose. Sometimes the beautiful writing got a bit in the way of the story for me though.
lean_bean's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
july2104's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
is_book_loring's review
3.0
A collection of musings by a Nazi regime survivor who tried to pick up fragments of himself and life, to be born again. I think this was the kind of book that should be read more than once in order to really savor it. Just not for me though. Reading this book, I felt dense. It was full of geology, botany, archeology, etc jargon and dump of random information that was technical, it almost incomprehensible to me. Despite the writing that truly stunning, lyrical and beautifully haunting, the story itself was disconnected pieces in form of rambling thoughts and memories.
allisong82's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
gj377's review
4.0
Every sentence in this book is a work of art, it is so hauntingly beautiful. Michaels is a poet, and you can really feel it. I don't even know how I feel about this book because it was just heartbreaking. A slow, soft winter read, you need to take your time reading it.